4S0 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



No scientific man and his discovery 

 have been applauded as wefe Admiral 

 Dewey and his victory, yet a century 

 hence scientific men of the present 

 period will be mentioned more often 

 than our military and political leaders. 

 Darwin's work is more effective and 

 permanent than that of any contem- 

 porary soldier or statesman; it is prob- 

 ably much better known throughout the 

 world and will be so increasingly. 



If it were but possible to direct the 

 mind of the crowd to science, an in- 

 terest would be created which would be 

 self-perpetuating. The minor events of 

 war and politics would be subsumed 

 under broader principles. A nation 

 whose chief interests were in science 

 would need no army and but little gov- 

 ernment. It would be prosperous be- 

 yond measure in peace and would be 

 invincible in war. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 



We note with regret the death of 

 Dr. Isaac Roberts, eminent for his 

 work in astronomy, especially for his 

 study of star- clusters and nebulae, and 

 of Sir John Simon, K.C.B., former vice- 

 president of the Royal Society and 

 president of the Royal College of Sur- 

 geons, well known for his important 

 services on behalf of the public health. 



A medallion in memory of the late 

 Sir George Gabriel Stokes, which has 

 been erected in the north aisle of the 

 choir of Westminster Abbey, was un- 

 veiled on July 7 by the Duke of Devon- 

 shire, chancellor of the University of 

 Cambridge, and formally transferred 

 to the authorities of the Abbey. Ad- 

 dresses were made by Sir William 

 Huggins, Lord Rayleigh and Lord Kel- 

 vin. — A public meeting lias been held 

 at Bury, England, to celebrate the bi- 

 centenary of the birth of John Kay, 

 of Bury, inventor of the fly-sliuttle, to 

 promote a public fund for the erection 

 of a statue in memory of the inventor 

 ami to institute scholarships. 



The Paris Academy of Sciences has 

 decided to award its LeCompte prize 

 of the value of $10,000 to M. Blondlot 

 for his researches on the so-called 

 n-rays. — Dr. Robert Koch has been 

 made honorary professor of the Univer- 

 sity of Berlin as well as a member of 

 the Academy of Sciences in succession 

 to Virchow. There are only two other 

 similar positions at Berlin, the one 

 held by Professor Auwers, the astron- 

 omer, the other by Professor Van't 

 Hoff, the chemist.— Dr. C. H. Tittman, 

 chief of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey, has left Washington for Alaska, 

 where he will meet Dr. W. P. Kino 1 , 

 chief astronomer of Canada, in order 

 to mark the boundary line between 

 Alaska and Canada in accordance with 

 the decisions of the commission that 

 met last year in London. — Mr. Bailey 

 Willis, of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 has returned from China, where he has 

 been making geological explorations 

 under the auspices of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution. 



It is announced that Dr. Harry 

 Tevis will establish in San Francisco 

 an aquarium in honor of his father, 

 the late Lloyd Tevis, which will be the 

 finest institution of the kind in the 

 world, the cost being $3,000,000 to 

 $4,000,000. The aquarium will, it is 

 sajd, be built in Golden Gate Park. 

 Mr. John Galen Howard, supervising 

 architect of the University of Cali- 

 fornia, is preparing the plans. — The 

 Schunck Laboratory, bequeathed to 

 Owens College by the late Dr. Schunck, 

 who had in his lifetime endowed the 

 college with £20,000 on behalf of chem- 

 ical research, has been removed from 

 his residence at Kersal and rebuilt in 

 the college precincts as nearly as pos- 

 sible in its original form. It com- 

 prises two floors and a basement, with 

 the most modern appliances, also a 

 valuable library and a collection of 

 coloring matter, natural and artificial. 



